State Turns Down East Hampton High School Construction Funding Request

ERIK HESSELBERGSpecial to The Courant

East Hampton officials must find as much as $7 million to fill gap in high school construction project.

EAST HAMPTON – The state has rejected a request to pay half the cost of renovating East Hampton High School, leaving the project with as much as a $7 million funding gap, officials said this week.

The news, while expected, has left school officials scrambling to find a solution, with the $51 million renovation project well underway. "None of this is going to be easy," Town Manager Mike Maniscalco said. "It's very unfortunate."

Maniscalco said the school building committee, which is meeting Thursday to discuss options, is weighing a legislative solution as well as scaling back the project.

"I think it's an exercise the town needs to go through," Maniscalco said of the proposal to scale back the project, in an effort to lower costs. "Unfortunately there is no magic bullet."

The high school renovation project – approved by voters in 2013 – calls for demolishing the high school's two aging wings, adding a new science and technology block, a new gymnasium and a renovated library and media center.

Under the "renovate as new plan," the state was expected to fund half the cost to renovate the 119,000-square-foot building.

But on Feb. 18, the state Department of Administrative Services rejected East Hampton's request, because the cost to renovate was more than building a new high school. The school's size, nearly 120,000 square feet, also exceeds the state allowance for the town's projected enrollment.

"The costs to renovate the existing building exceed the costs to build new, and, as a result we were unable to approve your request for renovation status," stated the letter from the department's Deputy Commissioner Pasquale Salemi to East Hampton Superintendent Diane Dugas.

Building committee members had been warned that the town's funding request might be rejected and have been working to find a solution, including a legislative fix.

State Sen. Art Linares, R-Westbrook, and state Rep. Melissa Ziobron, R-East Haddam, have crafted language to add to an omnibus bill that would keep the funding intact. However, the measure will not be voted on until June, at the end of the legislative session.

The building committee is also seeking a new project manager, after terminating its contract with the Capital Region Education Council, charging that quasi-public agency "failed to perform its contractual duties and obligations in accordance with applicable industry standards," and committed "multiple material breeches of the parties' contract…"

The building committee will meet Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the high school library.